Should We Close Our Borders?

CANADA’S IMMIGRATION POLICY: SHOULD WE CLOSE OUR BORDERS?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• A recent Fraser Institute study argues that Canada takes in too many immigrants.
• It claims that our economy performs better during periods of lower immigration, but its use of statistics is highly selective. Immigration has historically promoted economic expansion.
• It cites American evidence that immigration harms the bottom end of the labour market, but the circumstances cited do not apply to Canada.
• Wage competition between new immigrants and former ones does exist, but the effect is temporary.
• The study blames immigration for Canada’s brain drain, but other factors drive it.
• The shortage of skilled workers is minimized, and the need for immigrants to augment their ranks ignored.
• The paper fails to address Canada’s increasing proportion of workers to non-workers.
• Despite included evidence to the contrary, the study insists that the costs of immigration outweigh the benefits.
• The study worries about costs of immigrant social services, but the social investment they bring with them more than compensates for them.
• Given Canada’s long tradition of tolerance and assimilation, social impacts are not as serious as the paper suggests. Immigrant crime rates are low, not merely underreported.
• Overall, higher immigration levels do not hurt Canada, they benefit the country.Read this 10 page paper in pdf format Should We Close Our Borders – Canada’s Immigration Policy